Ronald Bailey Explains How Obama Might Get Away With Imposing Greenhouse Gas Limits on the U.S.
Lima, Peru—The United States Senate approved the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and President Bill Clinton ratified the treaty by signing it on October, 1993. By agreeing to that treaty the United States committed to the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey explains how President Obama might try to interpret next year's Paris climate agreement as not being an actual treaty requiring the Senate's advice and consent before ratification. It may instead simply be construed as an elaboration of our already existing obligations to stabilize greenhouse gases under the UNFCCC.